Some people find it excessive, some people find it unnecessary, but we think the kitchen computer will be the next “must have” device after the automatic icemaker. You don’t need a bulky PC, a small smartphone or tablet can do everything you want and more. A tablet can help even if you don’t like to cook; it might even make homework more fun. This guide will share a few ways your tablet or smartphone can become your most important culinary tool yet.

All you need to know

We like tablets in the kitchen simply because they provide the Internet, and the Internet is famous for having tomes of information on every subject imaginable. Cooking, health and nutrition are definitely no exceptions. You really don’t need to download anything. Everything you need to know when preparing meals can be found on your favorite cooking websites, instead of pulling out the old cookbook for detailed instructions.

The internet is an amazing thing, and if you cook often, you probably use it to find interesting new recipes anyway. A small laptop in the kitchen makes it easy to look up recipes, but that’s not the only kind of information these devices provide. You can use your tablet to look up nutritional information on the go or use calorie calculators to plan your portions. You can add fresh ingredients to your digital shopping list the moment you run out, so there’s never an excuse to turn to fast food.

Your computer can serve as a multi-ingredient timer, a meal planner, sometimes even a camera to take snapshots of your prettiest culinary creations. You can find smartphone and tablet apps that plan meals based on the ingredients in your fridge and apps that track your eating habits throughout the week. The more you search, the more you will find.

Is the kitchen tablet really excessive? We don’t think so. We think it can help anyone with casual kitchen experience create dishes they might never otherwise have achieved, and we know the internet can help answer those common “dumb questions” (like when did you whip the meringue long enough).

The kitchen tablet, or the smartphone if you prefer simple multifunctional devices, is already appearing in kitchen design magazines replacing the old casual stacks of cookbooks. They are making their way into the backgrounds of cooking scenes on television. Your portable chef’s assistant will save paper by not having to print out recipes, help you save patience answering questions, and help save money by reducing everyday mishaps in the kitchen. Not everyone needs one, but those who do shouldn’t settle for less.